Bucket list item #365 completed : DRIVE ON FLOATING BRIDGE! : 4/18/2015
I drove on the floating bridge in Seattle during my trip there and it was super cool! I thought it would be a lot scarier but it was really fun and felt super safe (because it is) haha. What a great concept for a road! The engineer in me was completely geeking out haha
Lately, I’ve been going to a ton of happy hours because a lot of my favorite people were born in January. And I’ve noticed that Phoenix has some amazing happy hour deals for wine lovers. I’ve decided to do a public service and have rounded up five of my favorite restaurants with fabulous happy hour deals AND delicious food. Enjoy!
Happy new year my friends, it is officially 2019! Was it just me or did 2018 just fly by? 2018 was an amazing year of travel and of bucket list items and I’m pretty sure it was because on January 1, 2018 I wrote a list of bucket list items I wanted to cross off in 2018 so I am going to do that again this year!
Just like last year, this blog post is multi-purpose, I want to share and inspire you all to set some goals for the New Year, and I also want to put this out into the Universe. I believe that once you say something out loud and/or write it down, the Universe will be on your side and help you accomplish whatever you set out to do. You can read more about that in 7 Reasons To Have A Bucket List.
If you’ve been around for a while you will know that I am a huge advocate of writing things down, in order to manifest them into reality. Because of this, on January 1st, 2018 I wrote a list of 12 bucket list items that I wanted to cross off in 2018. And since today is the last day of 2018, I wanted to take a moment to look back on my favorite bucket list items of the year. I managed to cross off 3 of the 12 items on my original list, similar to last year!
I’ll be writing a 2019 version because choosing 12 bucket list items for the year definitely pushed me to accomplish those goals, and I encourage you to do the same! Enjoy my favorite 16 bucket list items from 2018 listed in the order that they happened!
The items in this post with an asterisk (*) are the items that were in my 2018 bucket list goal list, the rest of the items were not necessarily planned but ended up happening because life is too short to not be spontaneous!
I cannot believe that 2018 is almost over! I seriously felt like I just celebrated welcoming 2018 with my family. Last year in 2017 I did so much traveling that I honestly thought I would not be able to top it…but guess what? I traveled even more this year!! I am so fortunate. I was able to see two new beautiful countries, return to my parents’ motherland, and see more of the vast United States.
Every year, I take some time to reflect on how that year went; and this year I will continue the tradition of rounding up one photo per trip to hopefully inspire you to travel a little more! Enjoy!
Happy International Day of the Mountain, my friends! This day is made for all of us who are #EnthusiasticAboutHiking. To celebrate, let’s take a look at seven of my favorite photos at one of my favorite parks in Arizona: Estrella Mountain Regional Park!
A couple of weeks ago, my friends from Denver visited and of course we went to Arizona’s #1 tourist destination: The Grand Canyon! It was such a great trip and the views were incredible (check out my Instagram story here), but it’s a little far away. I always underestimate how long the drive will be and this time was no different. Because we got back to Phoenix later than expected, I had to change our original dinner location and find a place that was open late during the week! There are plenty of places open late during the week and here are a couple of my faves. Let me know if I missed your fave spot!
The restaurants below are listed in order of which closes earliest.
It is officially Winter my friends! I am a Summer baby so obviously Summer is my favorite season but Winter means Christmas and who doesn’t love Christmas? I’ve spent most of my Winters in Arizona with my family but I have had the opportunity to spend a Winter in chilly Europe and warm Puerto Rico. One of my favorite parts about spending Winter in Europe was how festive everyone gets during the holidays. And with Christmas Markets being a huge thing, do you blame them?
A couple of months ago, I read a Buzzfeed article on Facebook where a ton of runners shared why they started running.
It was a very inspiring piece (check it out here) because the reasons were all so different, and so were the runners. After reading that piece, I went for a run (of course) to reflect on why I started running. The reason I started running is very simple: I wanted to run a marathon because I had heard of people running 26.2 miles and could not believe that this was possible.
I wanted to prove to myself that anything I set my mind to, I could accomplish. And what started off as a huge goal in my mind, changed my entire life.
When I first started running, it was just to reach that goal of crossing a full marathon off my bucket list, but as I started running and learning about true discipline (among other lessons), I began to really enjoy running. I enjoyed that it calmed me down when I was nervous, I enjoyed that it de-stressed me when work or life was overwhelming. I enjoyed slowing down my mind and focusing on just one thing: putting one foot in front of the other, versus thinking of the million things I had to do the next day. I enjoyed seeing my body change as I ran, getting stronger and faster.
It’s a simple (and very ambitious) reason to start running but as I continued with my running journey, I realize that I may just have one reason why I started running, but I have so many more reasons why I still run today.
Running is a huge part of my life and if you’ve been following along, I’m sure you already know this. So today, I’ve decided to share a few of the most important reasons why I still run in the hopes that you’ll get to know me at a deeper level, but also to maybe inspire you to lace up your own running shoes and join me on this #EnthusiasticAboutRunning journey.
I’ve spoken often of how I love when the Universe brings together things that I love in the best way. Like when I ran the ‘Run The Runway 10K‘ which combined my love of airplanes and running. Or every time I try a new restaurant from a place I recently visited. Or this time, when I read a book about traveling that makes me feel like I am traveling, even if I am just at the nail salon, at my house, in my car, or at dinner reading while waiting for a friend.
Today, we are discussing a book that speaks about one of my favorite loves: travel.
That book is “A World Worth Seeing” by Brian Nelson, a world traveler. In A World Worth Seeing, Brian Nelson takes readers through North and South America, Australia and the Pacific Islands, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It’s a shorter book (only about 90 pages) and it’s a super quick read.